Chapter 10
I accompanied the police to the station to help investigate the doppelgänger case.
During that time, the manager looked after the store for me.
The police investigation ended much sooner than I expected.
Since I was only being questioned as a witness, there wasn't much for me to do.
All I had to do was briefly answer questions about how I had happened to encounter the doppelgänger and how I had distinguished the two of them.
-Thank you. Thanks to you, we'll be able to continue developing methods for investigating doppelgängers.
-According to our simulations, the investigation method in question is believed to be highly efficient.
-It is advisable to conduct doppelgänger investigations using this method.
-We will present you with a commendation and award prize money.
The victim, Mr. Deok-pal, gripped my hand tightly and thanked me several times.
“You saved my life. I should have realized a little sooner that bastard was a doppelgänger……. I’ll be sure to reward you once this investigation is over!”
He said it was an item he had purchased with money he had saved to prepare for his next dungeon raid.
It was quite an expensive item, and he tearfully explained that if the doppelgänger had taken it, he wouldn't have been able to clear even the next dungeon, let alone tackle it right away.
He kept saying how relieved he was to be alive thanks to my identifying the doppelgänger.
On my way from the police station to the convenience store.
News was playing on an electronic billboard installed in Taepyeong City Plaza.
An owl beastfolk wearing a neat suit.
-Hoot, here is our next news report. A citizen’s sharp eye has uncovered the doppelgänger impersonation crimes that had recently been rampant among the shops near Hunter Tower.
-In particular, the method this citizen devised for identifying doppelgängers using strong light and shadows has proven highly effective, and the Taepyeong City Security Force has decided to immediately adopt it as an official investigative manual…….
I was already on the news?
Rumors spread fast.
I awkwardly scratched the back of my head.
‘I only managed to do it with the gallery’s help.’
On top of that, I had combined it with a hint from the manager—or, at least, the person I suspected was the manager—and now it was being adopted as an official investigative manual.
And there was prize money, too.
“If I get the prize money, I should really treat myself to some beef.”
My alarm began ringing like crazy.
It was the sound of private messages from the gallery users pouring in.
They were asking whether I was all right.
Others said they were glad everything seemed to have been resolved.
-You're the first gallery user I've seen solve something like this after only a week on the job.
-This bastard is a natural.
-Those doppelgänger bastards are seriously vicious.
-Good work.
I felt good, as if I had accomplished something major.
After finishing the investigation, I returned to the convenience store.
“You’ve done well! Jinjo knew my retainer would handle everything brilliantly!”
The manager laughed heartily.
The woman who had given me such tremendous help in solving the case was pretending she knew nothing.
That message had obviously been from her.
I didn't press her about it.
It seemed best for us to keep it a secret between us until she told me herself.
The manager was holding a block of tofu as she welcomed me back.
It looked piping hot, as if it had only just been steamed.
“What’s with the tofu?”
“Huh? Isn’t that how it usually works? In movies, they give tofu to people who’ve just come back from the police station.”
She seemed to have watched a movie about someone eating tofu after leaving prison.
“There’s no custom of giving someone tofu just because they were questioned as a witness.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
The manager smacked her lips as she gazed at the steaming tofu.
“What a shame. I bought it because I thought you’d like it.”
“Nobody dislikes receiving a gift. I’ll enjoy it.”
I accepted the tofu from her.
It still felt warm to the touch.
“……”
Even after I took the tofu, her gaze didn't leave me.
If anything, it seemed to grow more intense.
Could it be…….
“You want me to eat it now?”
“They always eat it in games, don’t they?”
Her eyes sparkled with expectation.
She had an expression that clearly said she had always wanted to try this.
She wasn't even a little kid.
I couldn't believe the store manager had a romantic notion about something like this.
But I couldn't ignore the thoughtfulness behind her gesture.
She had rushed out to watch the store while I was being questioned as a witness, and had even bought me this tofu.
She had also advised me to check the gallery, and on top of that.
‘The anonymous user who advised me might have been the manager, too.’
I bit into the warm, steaming tofu.
It was savory and delicious.
“How is it? Do you suddenly feel like starting a new life now?”
“It’s delicious.”
“…Is that all?”
“Um, yes.”
“It’s different from the game…….”
Her shoulders drooped, looking a little disappointed.
What on earth had she been expecting?
“In Stella Echoes, Mir awakens after eating tofu when she gets out of the detention center, so I was expecting something like that……. ”
Ah.
I remembered.
There had been a similar scene in the mobile RPG Stella Echoes.
There was an episode where Mir, a hotheaded character who frequently caused trouble, was locked up in a detention center after destroying buildings while subduing enemies.
When she came out of the detention center, she ate freshly steamed tofu to recharge her energy right before saving the protagonist, who had fallen into danger.
She must have really been captivated by that scene.
It had been quite a memorable highlight.
Was that part of the first-anniversary event story?
“For something from the game to happen, there needs to be something dramatic, doesn’t there?”
“Is that so?”
Just as she was mumbling regretfully.
Ding-a-ling!
“Part-timer! Min-cheol! Are you all right?? I heard you got caught by a doppelgänger!”
A familiar elf opened the door and entered.
She rushed inside, panting, and looked back and forth between the manager and me.
“Ugh! A vampire…….”
“Ah, it’s been a while. I was feeling lonely since I haven’t been able to see you much lately.”
“Ugh, why are you here…….”
“I came to watch the store while my retainer went to the police station for questioning. Then what brings the Forest Queen to Jinjo’s store? Did you come to challenge Jinjo again after all this time?”
“I heard Min-cheol was in trouble…….”
“Ah, that’s all over now.”
At the manager’s words, Friella’s eyes turned toward me.
“Ahem, y-yes, it certainly seems that way. I came as soon as I saw the news because I thought you might need my help…….”
Friella patted her chest.
“That’s a relief. I’m glad it ended safely.”
“But is it really all right for you to come here like this? It isn’t even lunchtime.”
“Of course it is. Who do you think I am? I am the Elven Queen who once led the Elven Forest…….”
“A freeloading elf.”
The manager abruptly cut into Friella’s proud introduction.
“……Vampire.”
“Is Jinjo wrong? Don’t you occasionally come to our convenience store to take the discarded food?”
“Th-that’s…… It is merely the elves’ noble duty to rescue food that would otherwise be thrown away and uphold the laws of nature! It has absolutely nothing to do with having no money or being hungry!”
Friella’s face turned as red as a tomato as she piled on desperate excuses.
“That was quite a long excuse. Still, I shall commend you for rushing here out of concern for Jinjo’s retainer.”
“I didn’t come because I wanted your praise!”
Her eyes darted toward me.
Regardless, the manager stretched and let out a long yawn.
“Hwaaahm. Jinjo’s energy is completely depleted from admiring her figurines and covering the daytime shift. I’m going to bed now, so look after the store for the rest of the day, my retainer. I’ll come back this evening. Knife-ear, don’t interfere with my retainer’s work. Eat some discarded food quietly and leave.”
“A-knife-ear? I am a great elf’s……!”
Friella shouted indignantly, but the manager was already waving her hand as she slipped through the Employees Only door.
The counter was left with just the two of us.
Friella huffed, but glanced at me to gauge my reaction before clearing her throat and folding her arms.
“Ahem! Anyway, I’m glad you’re safe. To think you faced such a lowly and vicious creature as a doppelgänger…….”
Ding-a-ling!
Just as Friella struck a pose and began offering me words of consolation, the convenience store door flew open with a loud ring.
“Welcome.”
“Don’t order me around.”
It was an elf.
His face was bright red, as if he were completely drunk.
The elf had slightly paler blond hair than Friella and blue eyes, and the sour smell of cheap Elven wine wafted strongly from him.
“Hey, part-timer! Bring me some nice, cold honey water!”
An elderly male elf wearing flashy hiking clothes.
The elf, wearing sunglasses, glared at me with a deep furrow between his brows.
“Sir, the honey water is in the heated display case over there. You’ll have to get it yourself.”
“What did you say, you young whippersnapper?! How dare you talk back when your elder is speaking! Back in my day, humans were extremely respectful, you hear? The moment I said a word, they’d all freeze up and…… Why haven’t you gone to get it yet? What are you waiting for?!”
Hmm.
Now I understood why elves were all treated like freeloaders.
They all used exactly the same lines.
Jingle!
The male elf dumped a pile of 100- and 50-won coins onto the counter and shouted in a heavily slurred voice.
“1,600 won! That’s for the honey water, so ring it up!”
I was wondering how I was supposed to send this man away.
“How dare you…….”
A cold voice came from beside me.
“What elven clan do you belong to, that you would disgrace the honor of the forest by making such a spectacle in front of another race?!”
It was Friella.
A blue light shimmered in her emerald eyes.
“W-what?! Which household’s old hag are you…… Eek!”
The male elf, who had been about to point at her, removed his sunglasses and saw her face.
His face immediately went deathly pale.
“Q-Queen, Q-Queen, Your Majesty?”
“Don’t you know that elves are hated by the other races because of people like you?”
His legs seemed to give out, and he prostrated himself on the spot.
“Th-that is…….”
“Get out of here. Don’t cause a disturbance. If I hear of your ugly behavior one more time, I won’t let you off with words.”
“I shall remember that!”
Before the automatic doors had even opened, the elf rolled himself out and fled the convenience store at top speed.
I couldn't help looking at Friella.
“Hmph, elves who disgrace the honor of elves. There are far too many elves like that these days. Fools who refuse to accept that the times have changed…….”
“That’s exactly what you did.”
“What?”
“When you first came to our convenience store.”
“I-I never did anything like that!”
“Didn’t you throw a fit and demand a barter last time?”
“Th-that was a perfectly reasonable exchange! Do you have any idea how valuable that branch was? It would fetch four million won even if sold as stolen goods on the black market!”
Her face flushed bright red as she protested desperately.
“By the way, what did you do with the World Tree branch I gave you?”
“The branch? I left it at home.”
I couldn't leave it at the convenience store, but I couldn't throw it away either, so I had brought it back to my lodging.
Of course, since I still didn't know what to do with it, I had simply left it there for the time being.
It certainly seemed like an extraordinary object.
All I had to do was leave it in my room, and I felt as if my body were cooling down.
“If you haven’t boiled it down and eaten it yet, I recommend buying a flowerpot and growing it this time.”
“You want me to grow it?”
“It’s a genuine branch of the World Tree, so if you can grow it, something good is bound to happen.”
“Understood.”
It wasn't an ordinary branch, after all.
It certainly seemed like it would be useful.
“Ah, before you go, pick out a lunchbox.”
“Why a lunchbox?”
“You helped me again today, so I can’t just send you away empty-handed. It isn’t payday yet, after all.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. Take whatever you want.”
“Th-then…….”
She picked up a pork cutlet lunchbox.
“I’ll enjoy it.”
Her cheeks seemed a little red.
Or was that just my imagination?
***
“Yes, we’ve just spoken with Sonya, also known as Kuroaki, the hunter who set an unprecedented record by clearing the seventy-second floor in the shortest time ever! Sonya, once again, congratulations from the bottom of our hearts!”
The camera’s red light went out, and the dazzling lights that had filled the studio dimmed.
Sonya.
One of the hunters climbing Hunter Tower, and one of the strongest hunters currently counted among the Seven Heroes.
A record-maker who held no fewer than twenty Hunter Tower records.
Her epithet was Kuroaki.
She had been given that name because black light rippled wherever she passed.
She was one of the strongest hunters, having never once lost to a monster.
The center of so much attention, she was a celebrity in Taepyeong City.
After setting another record today, she rose from her seat once the interview with the anchor filming the special broadcast was over.
“Thank you for your hard work!”
“Oh, Ms. Sonya, you were incredible in today’s interview. The ratings are going to be amazing!”
“Thank you.”
With the exaggerated praise and thunderous applause behind her, the smile disappeared from Sonya’s lips.
Click.
The moment the waiting-room door closed, the tension that had been pulled taut through her back released all at once.
“Haaah…….”
She took off the sponsored suit jacket, tossed it carelessly onto the sofa, and collapsed onto the seat in front of the vanity.
“This is exhausting. I’m tired.”
Other people’s gazes were too burdensome.
She wanted to get away from them so badly that she could hardly stay in her seat.
She wanted to disappear from the world.
She wanted to leave for a world where no one knew her.
“This isn’t why I became a hunter.”
Having removed her trademark black suit, Sonya slipped into the shadows wearing a black mask.
Darkness.
It was the place where she always found solace.